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Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne (USA), translated by Yao Naiqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-05-01
Features: The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne's masterpiece. It marks a significant breakthrough in American long-fiction writing with its profound thematic depth, rich imagination, and unique writing style. Itly showcases Hawthorne's intellectual and artistic characteristics. Set in the New England of 17th-century Puritan colonial rule, The Scarlet Letter draws on a love tragedy that occurred in Boston between 1642 and 1649. The story begins with a scene at the entrance of the town prison, with the central figure being Hester Prynne, a young and beautiful woman. She is holding a three-month-old daughter, Pearl, and standing on the scaffold, awaiting the judgment of the theocratic Calvinist (Puritan) regime before the public. So, who is the defendant on trial? And what crime has she committed? Several years before the story begins, Hester Prynne, born into a declining noble family in England, married an elderly, deformed scholar. After the marriage, they decided to move to Boston, Massachusetts. En route, they stopped in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The husband was left behind for a matter, and the wife arrived in Boston alone, staying there for nearly two years. During this time, the husband was missing, rumored to have been captured by Native Americans and his fate unknown. In her solitary life, Hester Prynne fell in love with the local minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, and gave birth to the daughter. Clearly, she had committed the sin of adultery, one of the Ten Commandments, which was unacceptable to Puritan doctrine. She was thrown into prison, convicted by the court, and ordered to stand on the scaffold for three hours as public humiliation, and to wear a red letter "A" (for "Adultery") as a lifelong punishment. The authorities repeatedly pressured her to reveal her accomplice in the adultery, but she refused outright. On this day, her missing husband happened to arrive and witnessed the scene. Among the onlookers, only Hester recognized him. To conceal their marital relationship, he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. At the same time, Hester's accomplice, the young and respected minister Dimmesdale, was also present. That night, Chillingworth met Hester in her cell in the guise of a doctor; he asked her to promise not to reveal his true identity and was determined to uncover her accomplice to avenge himself. He soon suspected Dimmesdale and feigned a close relationship with him. The minister's conscience was plagued with guilt, but he lacked the courage to confess his sin, and his health deteriorated. Soon after, Chillingworth moved in with Dimmesdale and shared a house with him, ostensibly to better observe his condition and provide better care, but in reality to torment him and weaken his strength and vitality. Later, Hester discovered Chillingworth's sinister motives and proposed to the minister that they run away with Pearl and escape this colony to Europe to build a new life. Pearl was now seven years old. Over the seven years, Hester had steadfastly loved the minister, pouring all her affection into raising Pearl and serving the public. Though she lived a life of extreme poverty and solitude, she also earned the sympathy and respect of the townspeople. Once, when she met the minister in the forest, she confessed her feelings for him and took off the scarlet letter, throwing it into a stream as a symbol of her resolve. However, the minister was bound by Puritan consciousness, believing that running away was a sin, making it a sin upon a sin, and thus hesitated. But he finally reluctantly agreed, planning to leave after completing his sermon on the Election Day. Hawthorne's arrangement of the escape on Election Day was deliberate—he wanted to use the minister's words to explain the doctrine of Calvinism, that a sinner could not atone according to his own will, and that his soul's salvation entirely depended on God's "election." At the same time, Hawthorne further exposed the hypocrisy of the minister himself and the religion by having Dimmesdale insist on fulfilling his final duty on this day. He delivered a moving sermon with all his might. Then, he joined the town's dignitaries and elites in a procession. Passing by the market, he tightly held Hester and Pearl's hands and walked up the scaffold with them. This scaffold was the very one where Hester had stood seven years earlier, holding Pearl and wearing the scarlet letter, as she endured public humiliation. It was also the one where he had feigned to persuade Hester to reveal her accomplice while hiding his own guilt. Now, standing on it, he finally confessed his sin and collapsed from exhaustion, dying on the spot. With this, Chillingworth, whose life was dedicated solely to revenge, also saw his plot come to an end, dying of melancholy a year later. Before his death, he left his property to Pearl. Pearl followed her mother to Europe, married a nobleman, and lived a happy life. Hester returned to Boston and continued to do good, and her tombstone was inscribed with a red letter "A."